


Harbor Me

by Lioneliness



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Letters, Light Angst, Lighthouse Keeper AU, M/M, Newmann Secret santa, Roommates, Sea Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28414380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lioneliness/pseuds/Lioneliness
Summary: Newmann Secret Santa gift for Jacq!I maybe got really carried away with the idea of a lighthouse keeper AU. Hermann keeps a lighthouse and Pentecost sends fellow researcher Newton out to stay with him. Newton begins to uncover things deep in the stormy pacific ocean.
Relationships: Newton Geiszler & Hermann Gottlieb, Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Harbor Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I wrote this for a secret santa but I hope lots of people can enjoy it. be sure to comment and reach out to me here or @lioneliness-etc on tumblr! I do take free fic requests and am happy to beta read any fics for people.

It was Stacker Pentecost who had told him to anticipate a visitor. He had, of course, phrased it by asking Hermann’s permission, but they both new that even a continent away Pentecost called the shots. Pentecost had signed off on allowing Hermann to move out to Halie’s Light in the first place, had convinced the PPDC to continue sending him projects while letting him take up a second job as a lighthouse keeper. Hermann didn’t stay all year of course, he would take a seasonal shift of several months and spend the rest of the time working out of PPDC offices along the west coast, even flying back to Hong Kong occasionally. Stacker had sensed how much Hermann needed this, his was a solitary genius that struggled to fit in the militaristic Shatterdome and even the halls of academia. Nevertheless, he was sending Hermann a roommate.

The email explained that there was another PPDC researcher, a biologist among other titles and a list of impressive degrees, who could uniquely benefit from spending some time studying the richly biodiverse waters of the Pacific northwest. He had a special interest in whales and other large sea life, Stacker noted that he had spent time studying rare instances of giant squid in Japan. Pentecost didn’t speculate as to whether or not Hermann would get along with this Dr. Geiszler, but there was an unspoken vow of professionalism. He was still Hermann’s boss. He mentioned that he had given Dr. Geiszler both Hermann’s email and address, and that he should be hearing from him shortly, should he agree to the arrangement.

Hermann had no choice but to agree, there was an extra bed after all. Like clockwork, the first letter arrived within the week.

Dear Dr. Hermann Gottlieb,

Hi! Stacker gave me your email, but I thought I should get used to writing your address, seeing as I will be coming to live with you in a few weeks. Thanks so much for that, by the way. I’ve never lived at a lighthouse before, but your job sounds fucking awesome. I guess I don’t know much about you, Stacker just said you were a pretty highly regarded mathematician and physicist. Which is really cool. I always leaned more towards biology and bio-environmental stuff. Mako said you were very kind though, she said she misses having you around. Which is a good sign because Mako is the best. She’s so strong and skilled at everything she does but not a jerk about it.

Anyway, I should tell you more about my stuff. I’m hoping to record data and sightings of the local orcas and other whales. I hear you see a bunch out where you are and I’m super excited to see them and observe how they are doing. I always kept up with the reports and surveys of the pods coming out of your area. Did you hear there was a new baby born into the resident pod recently? I think that just awesome. Whales have such good families and communities, they really care about each other, you know? Also, I’m hoping to take frequent samples and examine the tidal biodiversity by the light. People always think of the tropics and coral reefs as the only spots teeming with life in the ocean, but the dark colder waters have even more interesting creatures.

What kind of music do you like? I like all sorts but I was super excited that I’ll have to fly in through Seattle because I totally dug Nirvana as a teen. Kurt Cobain was a total dreamboat and he could really rock a floral dress. Also riot grrl in Olympia. I’ll bring a bunch of my favorite records for you. I know it’s kind of old school. I haven’t had a roommate since my first PhD! Sorry for rambling. You don’t have to write back if you don’t want.

See you soon,

Newt

Hermann wasn’t sure he understood half of the last paragraph, and to be honest he was starting to wonder if Dr. Newton Geiszler was truly a fully-grown adult. But he wrote back, typed his response in contrast to Newton’s purple gel pen on loosely folded paper, and he sent it off within two days, tucking it gently into the mail slot with the hands of a man discovering a new species.

…

The week Newt was set to arrive, Hermann cleaned and tidied the small house furiously. He rode the rather infrequent local bus the few miles south into the town of Halie’s Light and stocked up on so many groceries and nonperishables that he felt rather embarrassed locking eyes with the bus driver on the way home. The main house, 50 meters or so from the light house itself was really just the kitchen near the front end, a fraying couch and some pillowed benches surrounding the ancient pot belly stove beside it. Along the back wall was the door to the bathroom and a closet, with a single bed on either side along the walls. The light itself had fairly large room at the base with the tower and its spiraling metal stairs, half ladder really, rising from end opposite the door, just a few meters from the rocky cliff face. Hermann had prepared this room by dusting the shelves and putting up several folding tables for Newt to work on, he really only needed access to the closet of fuses and the generator, and more rarely to light above. Hermann paced until his bad leg started to ache at his hip and knee fiercely and he had to sit by the window and watch.

A little after noon a van emerged from the forest road into the driveway, broad straps holding an overturned rowboat to a rack along the top. Hermann instantly had his hand on his cane and was headed for the door. It was a gray day with high wind, something between rain and salty spray blowing off the water. Just as Hermann’s cane touched the tufted grass and gravel of the drive, a man hopped out of the car. At the distance Hermann could see he had glasses and gelled up brown hair, he was wearing a blue-gray raincoat unzipped, with a crumpled white oxford underneath. Newt raised his arm and started waving like he was attached to a motor. As they walked towards each other, Newt pushed up his sleeves revealing brilliantly hued sleeve tattoos. Hermann was more than a little surprised by that but he pushed on.

“Dr. Geiszler?”

“Yeah, hi! You must be Hermann Gottlieb. Thanks again for having me out here.”

Hermann could measure in his mind the angle of that broad, crooked grin. Something in that scruffy face made him squirm and he hated it. He hadn’t known what to expect but his wasn’t it. As they clasped hands in greeting he say flashes of orange and teal in the intricacy of the monsters running up his arm.

“The Vancouver PPDC sent down the van for me, it’s mostly crates of research stuff. Should I just grab my duffel?”

Hermann nodded. As they turned towards the house he risked a conversation.

“The bath down to the cove is just over there, but the best place to watch for the whales is up on the light when the weather allows.”

“Yes! I brought a camera I can set up there too. I’m really looking forward to tracking the big boys. And I can’t wait to get the boat out there and look for… other things.”

“What other things could you possibly find out there? Perhaps some salmon?”

Newton grinned like the Cheshire cat.

“Sure, but I was thinking more like… Sea Monsters.”

…

The thing about living with Newton Geiszler was that everything was loud all the time. Newt played music all the time. Records while he was in the house, radio or his own playlists while he worked in the foyer below the lighthouse. Hermann could hear it through the maintenance closet door and the sound drifting up the hatch to the platform and the bulb itself, even when the wind was blowing. Newt would sing along too, not terribly but not particularly well either. It quickly became clear to Hermann that Newton had hundreds of songs memorized, though often he would simply belt out the loudest parts along with it. Hermann recognized nearly none of it, but he got the sense there wasn’t a single song Newt listened too that was from before 1975. The Sex Pistols and Elton John were probably the oldest stuff on there, the former and Green Day being among Hermann’s least favorite for the “sheer volume and vulgarity”. Panic! at the Disco was secretly starting to grow on Hermann however, though he would never let on.

Newt quickly began spending a lot of time out at low tide, even dragging Hermann along a few times. Newt would slosh ahead through the stranded kelp and stringy seagrass in tall rubber boots, turning and lifting his findings with a grin for Hermann to see. Hermann refused to any further than the rocky waterline, turning up his nose at the slippery, smelly masses of soaked seaweed. He grimaced each time Herman would hold up a ropy bulb of kelp or a particularly large crab. Newt would overturn large stones, counting the baby crabs and eels and different varieties of algae before placing the rock carefully back and giving the barnacled top a loving pat.

One of the first projects Newt had undertaken was affixing a motor to the rowboat. He spent days on the beach tinkering with it and emerged with a final product that Hermann swore would explode within the month.

Newt was also constantly hauling around samples and leaving them in the lighthouse as he would prepare slides or write in his rain-smudged notebooks. At one point, Hermann nearly tipped over an orange bucket filled with sea water and a large starfish stuck to a rock.

“Newton! Why this there an entire living sea star in this bucket?” Hermann called up the stairs, seeing the open hatch above and banging his cane against the railing to summon him down.

“Huh? Oh, that’s Sabrina, isn’t she pretty?” Newt’s head appeared at the opening.

“Put her back right now, we don’t have the space in here for this!”

“I can’t! I found her missing a limb and it’s just starting to grow back. She’d be defenseless! And I would love to take some tissue samples to look at the regeneration process, now that I think about it.”

Hermann could only sigh.

The pacific rain meant that Newt would have to hang his constantly wet clothes inside, usually around the pot belly fireplace, and he had a tendency to just strip off his soaking clothes out in the open, which earned surprised yelps from Hermann several times. No matter how fast he looked away, Hermann couldn’t help but notice that the Newt’s tattoo sleeves arched over his collarbones and came to meet at a graceful point just between his shoulder blades. Like his arms were colorful wings, he thought, or the fins of a great whale.

One morning Newton burst through the door of the house holding a massive, slimy, moon snail that was dripping water all over the floorboards.

“Hermann! Look at the size of this snail!”

“Newton! Not in the dwelling space! Out!”

“Okay, Okay! Look at how cool he is though. I’m going to name him Slimy Hermann.”

“You will not.”

“Okay, Okay! Look at how cool he is though. I’m going to name him Slimy Hermann.”

“You will not.”

“Come on Slimy Hermann, let’s get you back home before the tide comes in.”

Nearly seven days into Newt’s stay, Hermann was checking the electrical room of the lighthouse with his clipboard, noting any damage to wires or cables, any wearing down of switches that he would need to request in his report. Newt had wandered up to the platform with some papers of his own and a new battery for the whale watch camera whose footage he reviewed each day on increased speed. It was around two in the afternoon when Hermann heard screaming.

“HERMANN! THEY”RE HERE! Get up here right now!” Newt was banging his fist on the metal hatch as though his screaming wouldn’t have been enough to alert the man below. As Hermann scurried up he could hear further whoops being lost in the wind outside.

Hermann ascended stiffly, he was quite capable of reaching the top of the lighthouse, but he tried to limit making the climb as it put stress on his leg and he was always a bit afraid of hurting himself if his knee should give out. Newt his set of binoculars in hand and his gaze fixed out on the horizon. Without even looking over he began to point.

“Look! There is at least three out there right now. I saw one breech earlier, you can see their backs and fins there.” He kept looking back into the binoculars before pulling away to compare the view. Out where the water was fairly calm, Hermann could the see rounded black fins of several orcas, and just barely the flash of a white chin as one lifted its head out of the water.

“It looks like there are two females, the other is really small… Oh my god I think it’s the new baby! The one they first recorded a few weeks back. Hermann it’s the baby! We are looking at the baby! I bet one of the older females is its mom.” Hermann wondered for a moment if there was a different sort of sound wave that conveyed only joy, of course not, that was idiotic, but if there was he thought he could hear it in Newt’s babbling voice. He looked away from the whales for a moment and found himself unable to look away from Newt’s profile, the intensity with which he leaned at the railing with his eyes fixed just below the clouds.

“It’s got to be the new baby, they said it’s the mother’s first one, you know? I bet she is doing a great job. I bet the whole pod is going to protect that baby. YOU ARE DOING SO GOOD OUT THERE! I’M VERY PROUD OF YOU, YOUR BABY IS EXCELLENT!” Newt began shouting at the ocean. “I really wish whales understood English. Hmm, the other female is looking kind of thin. In the past few years they’ve had trouble finding enough food with the dams up the Columbia river and all… I hope the baby will be ok.”

Hermann kept watching Newt while he watched the pacific. It really wasn’t all bad having a roommate.

…

Nights were long, the two of them were night owls. With a fire lit in the belly of the cast iron stove, Hermann would read and listen to the rain against the roof and the music Newt would play as he fiddled with his laptop. It took a few days for them to grow bold enough to interact during these hours.

“Hey Hermann”

He hummed in response, looking up to see Newt messing with a screwdriver and a small bright orange radio.

“Check this out. A university buddy of mine, mechanical engineer, built me this cool custom radio a while back and I like playing around with it wherever I go.” Newt came over and sat heavily beside Hermann on the small couch. They both fell a bit toward the center. “But, I found something cool that’s the same everywhere I go.” He fidgeted with the dials, altering the pace and tone of the static as Hermann looked on. Finally, it found purchase on a frequency.

“ _–desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead as we all pretend to sleep. Welcome…”_ A silky voice crooned from the other side.

“It’s a radio show?” Hermann asked after pausing to listen for a moment.

“Yeah, the guy’s name is Cecil. But the weird thing is, he says he’s in the desert, and we have heard others back this up, but no matter where I am in the world, I can always find this on a channel that shouldn’t even exist.”

“So it’s a hoax, or some kind of modern art project”

“I mean, maybe, but it’s everywhere in the world. I can get it in Hong Kong and in Boston. So maybe it’s like a big international broadcast but they aren’t saying anything that can really be interpreted to be anything else outside of this town. And there is nothing about them or Cecil on the internet.”

“That’s very odd” Hermann furrowed his brow. Newt had a lopsided grin and was holding the radio between them, as though extending a gift or perhaps holding an infant. Hermann didn’t have to be told to just listen, he was pulled in by the warmth of the stove and the crackle of the radio over the smooth voice, and by the inch between each of their shoulders that gently gave away to Newt’s carelessly relaxed weight against his. The air was thick with warmth and sound and Hermann found it to be colder than ever before as he lay in his own bed that night.

**…**

It didn’t last. About a month later, Hermann started to notice that Newt was fading away. He had started to spend less and less time in the house; he would be in the work room of the light until the late hours of the night. Hermann would watch the light out the window until he couldn’t stay awake any longer, often there would be no sign of Newt in the morning. After a week Hermann began to worry, Newt was barely sleeping and he was barely sharing meals with Hermann anymore. He tried to confront him about it, cautiously, one day in his work lab, but Newt just waved him off, said he was observing something interesting off the shore. Soon Newt was spending longer and longer out in the boat. It made Hermann nervous when he would lose sight of the boat on the horizon or around the bend of the rocky cliffs. The first time Newt stayed out on the water after dark, Hermann sat at the window, refusing to take his eyes off the pin prick of light from the boat.

Besides the concerning nature of his new behaviors, Newt was quickly beginning to get sloppy around the house. He left his dishes and cups of coffee out and rarely helped Hermann with dinner anymore. His clothes were strewn about his half of the room, and sometimes Hermann’s side too.

Hermann had about enough as he waited impatiently for Newt to come in during a rainstorm one evening. He slumped deeply on the couch, eventually propping up his aching leg and softly dozing off in the low light. Around midnight a wet and frigid hand brushed his necked as it crept to grab abound his shoulder.

“Hermann!” He heard Newt hiss and he opened his eyes to find the man’s face right up next to his. Newt was wearing a raincoat but was completely soaked through nonetheless. His hair was sopping and his face was practically running with streams of water. His glasses were completely fogged up and sliding down his nose, the look in his eye was so electric that Hermann nearly bolted up with fright.

“Newton it’s the middle of the night!”

“I know, Hermann you have to listen to me. There is something out there. I saw something.”

“Newton, you’ve been out since this morning. You need food, and water, and sleep for god’s sake.” Hermann responded tiredly, he was once again overcome with exhausted irritation. He stared at his odd companion for a long moment. Newt slumped back to kneel against his heels, looking up at the ceiling with a glazed look. Hermann watched a black shadow form on his upper lip. “Newton? Your nose is bleeding.”

Newt didn’t respond. Hermann sighed as he stood up and shuffled off to fetch Newt a tissue. The following morning Newt was gone before Hermann awoke, leaving only a half empty cup of over-sweetened coffee and a limp sweater tossed to the floor.

…

The seasons where changing. As they ventured deeper into November the surface of the water grew choppy and the wind whipped harder at the top of the light. Hermann found himself layering sweaters and multiple pairs of socks. He tried to keep a thick pair of mittens on as much as possible when he was out of the house. He hurried through any tasks that required being outside, especially high up on the light, but the increasing storms brought leaves and even boughs of evergreens down onto every rooftop. Rainstorms made certain that the ground was always slick and muddy, which made every movement more exhausting and meant keeping his cane clean became an annoying task. It rained for nearly a week after Newt had come in so late that night. The rising cold and Newt’s distance made Hermann’s work feel even lonelier than it had before. Which was fine, Hermann decided, he had always been just fine on his own.

Hermann had always been a man of science and reason, and he loathed not having a substantive amount of evidence to explain why the cold always made his disability more troublesome than usual. Combined with the frequent rain, it wasn’t terribly unpredictable that he would slip coming down the ladder-like stairs of the lighthouse. He was about halfway down when his leg gave a bit too much and he came tumbling down the last curve of the spiral, hitting the floor mid-breath.

In an instant, all the air was forced out of Hermann’s chest at once. He lay on his back trying in vain to inhale against the pain before erupting into violent coughs as his body screamed at him from every bone and joint and muscle. The coughing rattled the notches in his spine against the floor. When it finally let up, he tilted his head back and simply lay wearily as the adrenaline left his body. Everything was still and quiet. He checked himself over with slow movements. Thankfully he hadn’t hit his head, and while he was certainly bruised and would likely be sore, nothing was twisted or broken. He folded himself to sit upright. For an instant he wished someone was around to help him up and ask if he was alright. Actually, he wished that someone was Newt.

Feeling instantly childish, he grabbed his fallen cane and got to his feet, stumbling outside to see Newt standing in the water in tall wading boots, looking far out at the ocean. Something foolish crumbled to dust inside Hermann, but he started down the bath to the shore anyway.

“Newton!” He called out.

“Hmm? Oh, hi.” Newt’s vacant response killed something, stopping Hermann in his tracks. He fell silent for a moment.

“I… I fell”

“Oh. Uh, where and when?”

“Just now. I fell down the stairs of the lighthouse.”

“Oh… That sucks.”

Newton would never have heard him fall, Hermann thought as he turned back up to the house. He would be too busy chasing some slimy creature or thinking about the tides to hear Hermann or see him or notice he was gone.

…

Hermann didn’t speak much to Newt for a few days after that. Newt grew even more erratic and distant. On the third night, something awoke Hermann in the dark and early hours of the morning. There wasn’t any loud sound or specific thing that woke him, but he opened his eyes to see a single light on over by the kitchen, and Newt’s form hunched over the counter.

“Newton?” He called, sitting up. When there was no response he slid out of bed and grabbed his cane from where it was leaning against bedpost. “Newton, are you alright?”

He neared the kitchen to see Newt staring intensely at a coffee mug. His fingers were around the handle, but he was leaning with his elbows on the counter, unmoving.

“I saw it out there again,” He almost whispered.

“I… I don’t know what you mean. I don’t know how to help you. If you need my help.” The silence was long after that.

“Hermann. I’m going to try something.” He finally looked up from the counter, the same foreign, impulsive thing shining electric in his eyes. But it wasn’t frightening, bathed in the warm orange glow of the kitchen light.

Hermann would have liked to say he was taken by surprise, but one always sort of knows when they are about to be kissed. Something in the way the other moves towards them always betrays their intention. Newt’s lips pressed against his and all Hermann could think was that he was in his pajamas still. It was warm, but even more so, cold when it was over.

“You should go back to sleep,” Newt said hurriedly, and went off. Hermann did something along those lines

…

The next day it stormed fiercely, and they did not speak of it. Newt went out early, Hermann tried to focus on some reading and contemporary mathematical theory. The sun set early in this part of the hemisphere, but Newton didn’t stumble in until several hours after dark. Hermann knew something was wrong from the sound of Newt’s muddy boots on the doorstep.

“What is the matter?” Hermann looked up to find Newt in a drenched raincoat, dripping as he slammed the door behind him. Instead of answering, Newt ran for the window and stared out at the ocean before spraying water everywhere as he dipped down to rummage under his bed. Thunder rumbled outside and there were splatters and gusts just beyond the window. Hermann had a terrible feeling he knew what Newt would do next.

“Oh, absolutely not!” Hermann spluttered as Newt rose clutching a small notebook and a flashlight and headed back towards the door.

“Hermann, I need to go back out there.”

“It’s far too stormy to be out on the shore and it will be warmer here than the lighthouse. You certainly can’t go out in the boat in a storm like this.”

Newton was silent.

“My god you actually intended to do just that? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Herms… I need to go out there. Tonight is important… I’m really, really close to something.”  
“You’ll die out there you, absolute idiot! I have had just about enough of this from you.”

“I’m sorry, I won’t be out long. I need to do this.”

Newt was out the door before Hermann could even retrieve his cane. Hermann watched the flashlight bob and vanish out the window, with the sinking realization that he wouldn’t be able to get down there fast enough to stop him. He tried to watch for Newt on the shore or out on the water, but it was so dark and window was drenched and foggy. He put on his coat and shoes before realizing he wouldn’t be any help out there in the freezing rain. Instead, he started a stopwatch and he sat by the window, alternating his vision between the two.

After half an hour he began to pace as well as he could. He forced himself calm, told himself to make it forty-five minutes, or a full hour. At an hour and a half, he truly realized he wasn’t seeing any lights out there. At this point he called the sheriff’s department in town.

“Hello, I think my friend is in trouble. He was out on the water and the storm isn’t letting up, but he hasn’t come back.” He gasped into the line.

They asked him for details, a timeline, the type of craft. The town had a volunteer search and rescue phone list for emergencies, Hermann was assured they would be at the lighthouse soon and branch in either direction along the coast from there. A rescue vessel would be more difficult, given the weather, but it might be possible to do a very quick rescue if they could find the location of the boat off shore. Hermann tried not to go completely silent as this was explained to him. It took around an hour for a team of civilians in orange vests to show up at the house.

Two women stayed with Hermann while small teams took a car in either direction along the coast. Hermann couldn’t be bothered to remember their names. He kept his eyes on the phones and radios they held and tried not to show the fact that his bones and his very soul were dissolving with each passing, silent minute.

An hour passed, then two. Hermann ignored the sad glances the search team gave him, but he knew that even just one hour, with the raging storm and the frigid water, could spell the worst. He tried to sink deep within himself when watching the clocks and message updates stung too much. He blocked it all out until one of the women stationed with him was gently shaking his shoulder. He shook himself present to notice that the other was standing in the corner, listening and nodding hurriedly to a cell phone. Hermann looked frantically to the woman whose hand was still on his shoulder.

“They found him. He’s alive,” She quickly added. Hermann had no clue why this was the moment it became hardest for him to hold back tears. “About two miles north, he washed up. I’m not sure about his condition but they are assessing him now before they take him to a hospital. We can make it up there now to meet them, so you can ride with him.”

Hermann nodded weakly and shakily made for the door. The car ride was silent, the coast line disappeared behind looming pines. Hermann let a few hot tears fall before they pulled off onto a rugged dirt drive to that cut through the edge of the wood to the water. Hermann could see the bright emergency lanterns and the van that had been trailing the crew, parked sideways between them and the water. It was still raining heavily, though the wind had died down a bit.

A figure in an orange vest and green raincoat ran up to meet Hermann as the car stopped and he slid out. He gestured towards a cluster of people holding lights around something in their center.

“Hermann, right? Dr. Geiszler is right over there. We found him unconscious but he’s waking up fine, just half frozen and a little out of it. Clark over there is a nurse and is checking him over while we try to warm him up a bit. Just want to make sure we won’t be hurting him by getting him into the van.”

Hermann half nodded and pushed past him to reach the cluster. They parted just enough to let him in. In the center of the cluster Newt was sitting up on a collapsible stretcher, really just his soaked head and face above a science fair volcano of shiny warming blankets. His glasses were broken and there was a slowly bleeding scrape across his temple. There was a trail of dried blood running from his nose. A figure was knelt beside him and talking quietly, but both looked up as Hermann wearily dropped to his knees beside them. Newt looked puzzled but clearly recognized Hermann and tried to move towards him, though he was so wrapped in Mylar that it was more of a crinkly shuffle. Hermann took a minute to look Newt over and grabbed his shoulders with each hand to feel their realness before looking over to Clark.

“Nothing’s broken, he’s not in any pain even after we got him safe and warm. The cut’s superficial, will need to keep it clean though. He hasn’t been the most responsive or talkative, but he passed all the tests so if he’s got a concussion its extremely mild. Really, he just seems frozen and shaken up, but we should take him to get checked out at a hospital anyway.”

“No hospital,” Newt croaked, looking directly at Hermann.

“Newton, we need to make sure you’re completely alright.” Hermann replied softly, rubbing his shoulders gently.

“No. I’m fine, I just want to go home.” Hermann looked to Clark for a moment before he spoke next.

“I think he is exhausted. Would it be possible for me to take him home and bring him to hospital first thing in the morning? I’ll make sure he gets looked at, but I think right now he needs sleep.” Clark looked uncomfortable with this.

“He’s not in any immediate danger so I guess it would be ok… But it’s very important that he is cleared by a doctor before he goes back to his normal routines.”

“Very well. Thank you, thank you all for finding him.” Hermann glanced back to Newt to see him looking unfocusedly at nothing. “Newton, are you able to walk? Come on, let’s get you home.”

Hermann helped the mound of blankets onto his shaky legs and led him over to sit in the back of the van. Newt began to tremble violently as they gently cleaned and covered the scratch on his face with a bandage. Hermann wondered how much of this was from cold and how much from shock as they were ferried the two back to the lighthouse on the crew’s way back to town.

“I’ll find you some dry clothes,” Hermann said as he gently guided Newt down onto the couch. Newt still had barely spoken. At least it was easy to find some warm layers as Newt’s clothes were mostly strewn about his side of the room.

Hermann made tea while behind him he heard Newt shedding the crinkly blankets and dressing. He brought over some softer fleece ones before returning to spoon honey into Newt’s tea. Newt accept the mug with two hands, Hermann could see his fingers were shaking. He sat with his knees pulled up to his chest. Hermann tentatively sat beside him.

“I’m sorry Hermann.”

“It’s alright, I was simply worried for you.”

“No, I wasn’t a good roommate, or a good friend, and I never explained to you what was going on…”

“Newton, you don’t have to explain if you don’t want to. I just want to make sure you’re safe and that this won’t happen again.” Hermann took a deep breath before leaning over and wrapping his arms around Newt’s upper body, tea mug and all.

“I’m not sure if I can explain it.” Newt whispered, but he also slowly relaxed into Hermann’s arms. “There was something out there. Something big and from deep and far away. Hermann it was huge, and I could see it under the water. Like… so big you can’t even picture it in your head. And at first I was curious and excited but then… it got into my head, Herms. I don’t really know how or why but it got in there slowly. I couldn’t really control how I acted out my emotions, especially wanting to study it. It kept drawing me back there and I did stupid things and I’m so sorry.” He was close to crying.

“It’s alright, it’s alright,” Hermann soothed. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“I was still in there, but it made me be completely in my head and I didn’t know what moments I had control of my own body or not. And I love you so I kissed you but I didn’t think about how you would feel about it—”

“Newton, I love you too.” It was the fastest and surest conclusion he had ever come to in his life. Hermann reached up and pressed a few scattered kisses to Newt’s clammy forehead and cheek, one even landing in a salty spot on the bridge of Newt’s nose.

“Oh. That’s cool then.” Newt breathed out with a small laugh. He wiggled an arm out to set down his tea blindly and embrace Hermann back. They held each other for a while.

“Hermann, I’m just going to say this right now: there is no way I will let you take me to a hospital tomorrow”

“Funny thing how you can have so many PhDs and still think I will let you get away with that.” Newt snorted drowsily. “Now you really need to get some rest.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Newton.”

“Can we stay on the couch at least?”

“Alright…”

“And can you put my radio on?”

“I suppose so.”

Newt was out within minutes but Hermann sat in the dark for a little while, letting the voice of Cecil Palmer float them both away.


End file.
